Update on Whitney: Science, Art, Magic…and Patience

Heads up to nearby friends and neighbors: if you see me walking around our Printers Row neighborhood with an invisible dog tomorrow, don’t call the authorities. I haven’t lost my marbles. Not yet.

No need to worry about the stranger you’ll see holding the front of Whitney’s empty rectangular harness and leading me around, either. He’s not a kidnapper. He’s Chris Mattoon, an instructor from the Seeing Eye School. The Seeing Eye sends instructors out to students’ homes before we head off to Morristown, New Jersey to be matched with a new dog. Whitney will get the afternoon off tomorrow while Chris plays her role. He’ll guide me , I’ll hold the back of the harness, and from this exercise, Chris will be able to evaluate how much pull I need/want from my new dog, how fast I like to walk, and if the place I live and work has changed since I was matched with Whitney in 2011.

Seeing Eye instructor Chris Mattoon at home with his own pet dog, Gilda, back in 2011.

Longtime Safe & Sound blog readers might recognize Chris Mattoon’s name: Mike Knezovich wrote a blog post in 2011 when Chris came to Chicago to evaluate my third Seeing Eye dog, Harper, who had to retire early. From Mike’s post:

He also explained that although Harper didn’t start balking right after the near-miss with the car, the stresses on the dogs can be cumulative.

The three of us talked and imagined what swirled around in Harper’s head. In the end, Chris made it clear that city life had just become too much for Harper. Beth would have to get matched with a new partner.

Chris trained Whitney for me after Harper retired, and after eight heroic years guiding me around Chicago, city life has become too much for Whitney now, too.

The Seeing Eye describes the matching process that pairs a Seeing Eye dog with a new owner as “part science, part art, and part magic.” Seeing Eye dogs are all trained to follow the same commands, but I couldn’t just show up at the Seeing Eye, pick up the harness on any dog and expect our partnership to work. It’s not that easy.

The Seeing Eye breeds its own dogs, finds volunteers to raise the pups, and then evaluates the dogs when they are about a year-and-a-half old. Dogs who pass the audition are trained for four months by professional instructors at the school. During the four months training process, Seeing Eye instructors keep notes on the work style of each dog in their string. From a page called The Match on the Seeing Eye web site:

The location where the person lives and works their dog the most is compared against any notes about the dog’s performance in those environments during training. Personality is another important consideration. Just like people, dogs have different energy levels and personalities and it’s important to make sure they match their new owner in a way that’s beneficial to both.

I am scheduled to train with a new Seeing Eye dog in early December, but Seeing Eye staff are aware how eager I am to allow Whitney to retire sooner. They agree she deserves a good long retirement and will contact me if they find a perfect match before the class in December. Not surprised it’s taking them a while. Finding a dog who matches my personality? No easy feat!